The Philippines is located in Southeast Asia, south of Taiwan and China, and north of Indonesia and Australia. An archipelago, the Philippines is made up of 7,107 islands and counts a total land area of approximately 300,000 square kilometers (116,000 square miles).

The Philippines consists of 17 sub-regions (see map, right), which are combined into the three island groups (see map, below): Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Manila, the second largest city in the Philippines after Quezon City, is the capital of the Philippines. It is located in Luzon in the National Capital Region (NCR), also known as Metro Manila (MM).

The regions CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, and SOCCSKSARGEN are capitalized because they are acronyms that stand for their component provinces or cities.

It has one time zone – Philippines Standard Time (PST) which is eight hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

The local climate is tropical: hot and humid. It has two seasons – wet (June to November) and dry (December to May). Its topography is mountainous, and volcanic both in origin and in actuality. Its highest peak is Mount Apo (2,954 meters /9,692 feet above sea level), which is located in the island group of Mindanao.

Natural disasters include typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and drought.

The Cagayan River, in northern Luzon, is the Philippines longest river. Its largest lake, Laguna de Bay, is also in Luzon. Its coastlines are lapped by the South China Sea, the Philippine Sea, the Sulu Sea and the Celebes Sea.